Backplates on AMD motherboards

[Taradino]

I was under the assumption that after the Athlon XP (Socket A) series motherboards, all newer AMD motherboards have a cpu back plate. This back plate is designed to prevent the motherboard from being bent from the heatsink on the cpu.

The reason why I'm asking, is I have an Asrock 939Dual-VSTA motherboard with no backplate. However I feel like I have seen around somewhere that socket 939 motherboards are supposed to all have back plates?

Whats the truth?

 

[Solarfall]

well...... atleast all DFI and asus boards have that packplate thing.

 

[BillParrish]

hi, I guess the truth is what AMD says it is, I checked their web site and found a ton of technical documents. The specifications for the socket for an athlon 64 do not mention the backplate but this document seems to indicate that a backplate is indeed required, /shrug, There are several series of athlon and I didnt check the docs for all of them nor check all the docs for the 64's but did find this,

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/31684.pdf

it states:
The AMD Athlon 64 processor heatsink requires the retention frame and the backplate to be attached to the motherboard. If the retention frame and backplate are already attached to the motherboard, proceed to step 10. shows the backplate and retention frame for the AMD Athlon 64 processor heatsink. The hardware shown in Figure 4 may not exactly match the one provided in a PIB.

PIB = processor in a box.

 

[kirbyrj]

You can buy backplates. I'm not sure where I've seen them for sale, but I have seen them for sale.

 

[Diablo2K]

I seriously dont think a stock AMD heatsink needs a backplate. The problem is with aftermarket heatsinks and there differant mounting systems. I have a Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu LED HSF and I have it mounted as it says to mount it, and I got to say, a few days ago I was looking at the motherboard and it has a pretty good bend to it. My guess would be this is why AMD went with the 4 hole mounting system on the AM2 boards to help with this problem.